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Events span Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties

LOS ANGELES – 04/30/07 – The 81st Annual Observance of World Trade Week will launch tomorrow with a Kickoff Breakfast at the Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown Hotel.

Dr. Howard Shatz, an economist with the RAND Corporation and adjunct fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California is this year's keynote speaker addressing the event’s “Globalization and Beyond” theme and focusing on globalization and its impact on the greater Los Angeles region.

The breakfast will be followed at 10:30 by the launch of WorldCity's second annual Los Angeles TradeNumbers publication, sponsored by Los Angeles World Airports, the Port of Los Angeles, and the CBRE.

The World Trade Week (WTW) name is a misnomer of sorts as the scope of the observance has grown over the years to encompass a calendar of global trade-related conferences, seminars, and other events held through the entire month of May.

World Trade Week in Los Angeles – the birthplace of the WTW concept – has thus become the largest such observance in the entire country.

In 1926, Stanley Olafson, manager of the World Trade Department at the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, first came up with the idea of designating a week in February to bring the publics attention to the importance of international trade on the local community.

The success of WTW spread nationwide and nine years later, President Franklin Roosevelt officially proclaimed the third week in May “World Trade Week” as a national event to include National Maritime Day.

Initially, the purpose of World Trade Week was the promotion of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

However, following World War II, the Southern California region’s expanding economy and potential for international commerce growth created an opportunity for WTW to expand its scope to include all activities and organizations in the Southern California area involved in global commerce.

Under the observance’s Founding Sponsors – the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles World Airports, and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – the original week-long observance has now grown to feature more than 30 trade-related events held from May 1 - 30 in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties.

Sponsors of this year’s World Trade Week observance include City National Bank, FedEx, the Port of Los Angeles, Toyota, Carlsmith Ball, LLP, the County of San Bernadino, Delta Airlines, the Port of Long Beach, Air China, Carmichael International, the City of Riverside, the American Association of Exporters & Importers, the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railway, the Centers for International Trade Development, Megatoys, and Princeville Resorts.

For a complete calendar of World Trade Week events in the Southern California region, go to www.worldtradeweek.com/

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